Posted by CheechWizard on August 11, 2009, at 12:53:44
In reply to Re: Adderall (Generic or not) Vs. Vyvanse » Dorian W. Gray, posted by Gmill on July 13, 2009, at 16:20:18
I took Adderall XR for 3 years, starting with 25 mg in the morning later upped to 30 mg as I was building a tolerance. I was also taking 10 mg Adderall IR in the evening. No side effects, no problems with sleep at all.
Due to increased tolerance I found the Adderall becoming less effective. So I tried focaline and then vyvacne. With both I did not like the side effects and took a break from all meds for 6 months.
In the fall, October 2009, I went back on Adderall XR, 25 mg in the morning and 10 mg of Adderall IR in the evening. (The Adderall IR it take is the oval shaped blue generic tabs manufactured by Barr wich has worked well. I found the round generic made by another manufacturer not good.) I felt, after a 6 month break, that the XR was working well.
In April I was told by my pharmacist that the generic XR was out. I was excited, this meant a $10 copay instead of a $55 copay. In my excitement, I did not even think of the possible difference a generic could have.
The 1st month went by and I started to feel that possibly I was building a tolerances again, maybe because I had one before.
The 2nd month I started getting headaches. I also was waking up at night after sleeping for 3 hours and not able to fall back to sleep for several hours.
By the 3rd month the headaches were constant and I was feeling sleep deprived. I tapered off all Adderal thinking it was not working. I have tried it a few times since when I really had a lot going on. On those occasions, mild headaches and sleep issues, but manageable for the short duration.
It wasn't until yesterday, 4 months later, that I started looking up the difference between the generic and the non-generic and made the connection. I do not believe the side effects were psychosomatic as the difference in generic/non-generic never crossed my mind.
So I am thinking of going to the Dr. to get another script specifying non-generic only (DAW). I checked my coverage and it looks like, since there is a generic, the co-pay for non-generic has increased. I despise drug companies!
Also I will say that generics are not always the same as non-generics. The active ingredients can vary by a percentage. With Adderall this can have a great impact as you are dealing with 4 amphetamine salts and one or all could be different. I read somewhere this is true with the non-generic Shire Aderall IR vs the Barr Generic IR vs the other (I forget the manufacturer) geneirc Adderall IR. I also read that Barr manufactures the Shire as well as the Generic Adderall IR and part of the Shire contract is that they use less of one of the Amphetamine Salts.
I have no facts to substantiate the last paragraph but you can find them on-line. I will find them later when I have more time if anyone is interested.
Sorry if this post was long.... what can I say, I'm not taking any ADD meds. Ok, back to work....
poster:CheechWizard
thread:890876
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090810/msgs/911571.html